Flashback Friday

On the injustice of parking in the Fan.

While Fan dwellers debate the finer points of the latest parking proposal, it’s perhaps worth noting the lengths arguments over the resident-only parking rules have gone in the past.

Introduced in 1972, the Fan District parking zone was briefly ruled unconstitutional by a city traffic judge after a ticket was contested by a non resident. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually heard a related case and in 1977 overturned a Virginia Supreme Ruling that deemed resident-only parking programs discriminatory.

From Oct. 12, 1977, Richmond News Leader:

A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding special parking privileges that differentiate between residents and nonresidents of an area will prompt Richmond and Charlottesville officials to consider reverting to the original parking provisions adopted for the lower Fan area.

City Councilman Wayland W. Rennie said yesterday after being told of the high court’s ruling, which as announced earlier in the day, that he would sponsor a move to reinstate the original Fan parking provision. The measure is similar to the Arlington County law that was upheld by the court. …

The city stopped ticketing cars that were parked for more than an hour and didn’t have the decals after a Richmond traffic court judge ruled the city’s provision was unconstitutional. The decision was based on a Virginia Supreme Court ruling in a test of Arlington County law.